THE REACH OF WAR: AFGHANISTAN

THE REACH OF WAR: AFGHANISTAN; 7 Killed in Kabul As Bombing Rips A U.S. Contractor

By AMY WALDMAN

Published: August 30, 2004

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 29—
At least seven people, including at least two Americans, were killed Sunday when a powerful bomb exploded outside the compound of an American contractor helping to train the Afghan police.

A spokesman for the International Security and Assistance Force in Kabul, Squad Leader Peter Maskell, said a second bomb had been found next to the explosion site and had been defused by French explosives experts.

The bombing comes just 40 days before presidential elections, scheduled for Oct. 9, and after warnings that the Taliban and other militant groups were planning major attacks in Kabul before the elections. It is the deadliest attack in Kabul since September 2002, when 26 civilians died in a car bombing.

American and Afghan officials say the building attacked Sunday was used by DynCorp Inc., which provides security for President Hamid Karzai and also has a contract to train the police force. The building also included some residences, the officials said.

In a telephone interview, a Taliban spokesman, Latif Hakimi, claimed responsibility for the attack, on what he called an American base involved in reconstruction. He also promised more attacks, saying, ''Lots of Taliban mujahedeen have entered Kabul, and we will explode more bombs.''

Western diplomats have sought to increase pressure on Pakistan in recent days because of concern that Taliban fighters have found sanctuary there, making it easier for them to plan and execute attacks.

Mr. Karzai's office said two Americans, three Nepalese and two Afghans, including a child, had been killed. Nick Downie, the security coordinator for the Afghanistan NGO Security Office, who was among the first at the site, estimated that four American DynCorp employees, three or four Afghans, and three Nepalese Gurkhas providing security for DynCorp had been killed. Several other people were seriously wounded.

''The president understands that as the people of Afghanistan move toward elections, the enemies of Afghanistan will expedite their efforts to harm the election process and threaten the people's security and prosperity,'' the statement from President Karzai's office said. ''However, Afghanistan will continue relentlessly on the path that the people of this country have chosen: the path of peace, prosperity and reconstruction.''

The bomb went off around 5:45 p.m., shattering glass blocks away and sending a huge black plume into the Kabul sky. Fifteen minutes later, a fire raged at the site, and at least two bodies were visible in the street -- one almost a block from the explosion site. DynCorp employees wearing bulletproof vests and carrying automatic weapons fanned out in the street, tending to the wounded and pushing back spectators.

Lutfullah Mashaal, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said the engine of some kind of truck had been found 300 meters away. He said it appeared likely that the attack was a suicide bombing because DynCorp security usually prohibits anyone from stopping in front of the house.

Mr. Hakimi, however, insisted that the bomber had survived.

In a separate incident, eight children and one adult died in an explosion in a madrasa in Paktia Province on Saturday night. Mr. Hakimi insisted that the Taliban were not responsible for that attack, however. Afghan and American military officials said they were still investigating the cause of the explosion.

The bombing in Kabul followed a period of relative quiet in the city. A bombing in June 2003 killed four German peacekeepers, and in January 2004 a suicide attack killed a Canadian peacekeeper.

But despite repeated warnings, discoveries of explosives caches and multiple attacks on aid workers and contractors outside Kabul, the international civilian representatives in the capital have been largely immune from attack, until Sunday.

The blast, Mr. Downie said, moved armored vehicles parked in front of the compound and sent body and vehicle parts flying 70 yards. Explosives experts on his staff estimated that more than 200 pounds of explosives had been used, he said.

He also noted the heavy security DynCorp employed at the compound, including Gurkhas posted at both ends of the street. He said it had appeared that the bombing was either a ''suicide attack or a Trojan horse that got past some very good security on that street.''

The compound is on a crowded, affluent residential area, Shar-e-Nau, which has become home to many international organizations and guesthouses for their employees.

''This blast occurred on the front doorstep,'' Mr. Downie said. The carnage would probably have been worse, DynCorp employees told him, had a number of people not left for dinner shortly before.

DynCorp officials could not be reached for comment on the bombing.

Mr. Downie said that attacks had been forecast as the elections came closer, and that in recent days ''we focused much more on this.'' In the last 24 hours, his security group, the United Nations and the International Security and Assistance Force in Kabul had issued specific suicide bomb attack warnings.

Mr. Maskell, the security force spokesman, said the force and Afghan security forces had found a number of explosives in recent weeks, and would continue to work to prevent attacks.

Mr. Downie's advice to the many nongovernmental organizations in Kabul employing foreign nationals was ''to basically hibernate'' and step up security around their compounds.

''We've seen what we predicted,'' he said. ''We'll see what ISAF and the security forces in and out of Kabul can do to prevent this from happening again, but personally I can't say I'm optimistic.''

Photo: Afghan policemen performed rescue operations yesterday after an explosion outside the Kabul offices of the American company DynCorp. (Photo by Olivier Matthys/European Pressphoto Agency)(pg. A7)